I've spent almost my entire career as a journalist covering tech in and around Silicon Valley, meeting entrepreneurs, executives and engineers, watching companies rise and fall (or in the case of Apple, rise, fall and rise again) and attending confabs and conferences. Before joining Forbes in February 2012, I had a very brief stint in corporate communications at HP (on purpose) and worked for more than six years on the tech team at Bloomberg News, where I dived into the financial side of tech. Before that, I was Silicon Valley bureau chief for Interactive Week, a contributor to Wired and Upside, and a reporter and news editor for MacWeek. The first computer game I ever played was Zork, my collection of now-vintage tech T-shirts includes a tie-dye BMUG classic and a HyperCard shirt featuring a dog and fire hydrant. When I can work at home, I settle into the black Herman Miller Aeron chair that I picked up when NeXT closed its doors. You can email me at cguglielmo@forbes.com.

Cisco CEO John Chambers is counting on the software, services and hardware needed to enable the Internet of Everything to help turn the world’s largest maker of networking gear into the leading supplier of information technology.

“This will be bigger than anything done in high tech in a decade,” Chambers said in a keynote presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today. Businesses, governments and consumers will generate or realize savings to the tune of $19 trillion by allowing devices and applications to work together and create new services built off the Internet.

Here’s a play-by-play of what Chambers said:

4:35: Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, takes the stage to introduce Chambers. “John has built his entire career seeing around the corner.”

Chambers on stage. Says a year ago, he would have to explain what the Internet of things. But all of a sudden, business and government leaders are realizing what the Internet of Everything means in terms of job creation, growth.

Four years ago, we talked about what it meant in terms of putting this over a smart grid and moving electricity around. Two and half years ago, it was about connected industries. Bet on the Internet of things is paying off.

His prediction: 2014 will be the transformational, pivot point for Internet of everything. It is not just connecting a car, a refrigerator or health device — it’s the combination of all of this. It will be five to 10 times more impactful than the whole Internet revolution has been.

Now showing a video with stand-up comedian Sarah Silverman talking about the Internet in the future and how everything will be connected. (It’s funny so I hope that Cisco posts it on its site later). “I can totally see how this is going to change my entire life,” she says.

Chambers says it’s the ability tie together applications that makes the connected world possible. He now calls Silverman to the stage.

“Hi I’m Sarah Silverman, comedian, actor and writer — though I didn’t write this shit,” she says. “I’m here to talk to you about the new Internet of everything. It ill cook your food for you, drive your car and make you more interesting…And if you order it now, you will get a free set of Ginsu knives.”

Now back and forth between Silverman and Chambers, in which she congratulates him for following her on stage. “You’ve got balls Chambers. You’ve got balls. Now go out there and do your keynote thing and sparkle peanut.” Yes, much laughter.

4:48: “Let’s talk about what is possible today. Let’s start with amazing statistics. In 1984, there were 1,000 devices connected to the Internet. By 2015, mobile devices will be greater than the total population. 10 billion devices in 2014 will have 77 billion mobile apps downloaded.

$19 trillion: that’s the opporunity he says for the Internet of Everything in the private and public sector combined. Breakout is $14.4 trillion in private sector and $4.6 trillion in public sector of new revenue generation or new savings. That’s a conservative number he says for public sector.

“This will be bigger than anything done in high tech in a decade.”

Retail is $1.5 trillion opportunity out of that $19 trillion. “It’s the ability to put together smart shopping carts…[offer] virtual concierges.”

Connected garbage cans can help save $10 billion as you transform waste management, he says. You can change traffic patterns of trucks, put sensors in cans to notify you if the cans are full or empty and need to be picked up.

He says there’s $13 billion a year spent on street lighting. By using connected technology, you could reduce by 70 percent the energy costs for streetlights in cities.

“This is not about technology at all. It’s about how we change people’s lives.”

“Not only is $19 trillion doable. It will require changes by all of us.”

Says it requires a new form of IT that’s simple to use, and dramatically faster. It has to be secure and have privacy. Needs an architecture that offers a seamless integration of apps, networking, Chambers says.

5:00: He’s now talking about parking in cities and how it’s a top revenue producer. The ability to change how parking is handled — including offering the real-time availability of parking spots, and capability to change the price of parking based on demand and issue tickets.

Now a video on how the city of Barcelona in Spain is embracing the Internet of everything. Vice mayor of Barcelona now comes out on stage — Antoni Vives. Chambers asks him about how Barcelona is becoming a smart city.

“We’ve been working on the concept for a while because we’re obsessed with the quality of life of our people. Went through several issues. Smart water — we’re saving $58 million a year on that,” Vives says. They’re also working on lighting and parking management. Has increased revenues of parking fees by $50 million, a third increase. Job creation — have created 47,000 jobs related to the smart city effort in Barcelona.

Vives tells a story about his mom and how the quality of life can be improved through technology since it allows cities to deliver new services.

“We get 180 official visits per year — once every two days I have a mayor of another city in my office,” Vives says. The Internet of Everything has become the backbone around which tech initiatives are being undertaken, rather than doing projects in silo. He thanks Cisco for partnering with Barcelona on these initiatives.

5:12: Now Chambers talks about digital home and what today’s generation of tech-savvy youngsters expect in their home. Says service providers like AT&TAT&T are helping deliver that vision. Calls Ralph de la Vega, head of AT&T mobility to the stage.

de la Vega says we “love what we’re doing with digital life” project around in home automation. Now in 59 markets. He says that he had a customer who had a crime problem with packages being stolen from their front porch. Customer put a phony package on his porch, pointed camera at the porch, sent pictures to the smartphone and thief was caught 30 minutes later by police.

de la Vega is now talking about connected car. “The vision we have is when the car gets you home, the car talks to your home.” AT&T announced deals this week with AudiAudi, Chevrolet and Tesla to work on connecting homes and cars.

Chambers asks about Cisco partnership with AT&T. “We’re blazing trails here,” de la Vega says. Thanks Cisco for its help in setting up the wireless home security system.

Jim Grubb, Cisco’s chief demonstration officer, now on stage. He’s demoing Cisco Videoscape – user experience for home entertainment delivered from the cloud. (Videoscape is offered to Cisco’s service provider customers, who can in turn deliver to consumers.) He’s now giving an extended demonstration of Videoscape.

Topic switches to big data. Photographer Rick Smolan, creator of the Day in the Life series of books, now called to the stage to talk about his book on big data, “The Human Face of Big Data.” Says there’s an app for the book that’s available free in January; it’s an interactive book.

Now Chambers with closing remarks. “Remember where you were a year ago and how fast things have changed.” He says he believes IOE will propel Cisco to the No. 1 IT provider.

NextNext frontier will be around healthcare, he says. And in 2015, instead of smart cities, he believes we’ll be talking about smart countries.

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.